


Journey Across the Stars

by Skitzer1985



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Craigbot, F/M, Lost in space - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25948183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skitzer1985/pseuds/Skitzer1985
Summary: Earth is doomed, and 6 souls venture out as one last hope to save humanity
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger, Troy Barnes/Britta Perry
Comments: 13
Kudos: 30





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hey All, had this idea and thought I would see what I could make of it. Let's see where this goes okay.

The dust danced on the air in the room, lit by the faint beams of light coming from outside. The sole occupant of the room, still slumbering as the lights flickered on in the room, slowly at first, brightening to become a steady glow from the ceiling. A faint beep in the background didn’t disturb their slumber, their breathing not affecting the dust playing around them.

“System Restoration in progress, expected time until awakening, 5 minutes and counting” a disembodied voice softly said from the single speaker in the ceiling.

A console above the occupant lit up, slowly at first, and then speeding up, scrolling through lines of system code and then text until a progress bar was the only image on the screen, green against the black screen as it coursed its way towards a completion status.

“System Restoration complete, commencing awakening cycle. Time to complete, 2 minutes, 30 seconds”

A faint hiss emerged from the occupant’s pod, gas escaping as the seal around the top of their sleeping pod started to cycle the interior environment to match the cabin’s. The scroll bar finished its journey, another wall of code and text scrolling down until the panel flickered out and turned off. The top of the pod slid back into the wall, silence falling into the room as the occupant stirred from their slumber.

“Good Morning Captain, Ship time is 04:00. Time since launch, 63 years, 12 days, 15 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds” the voice from the ceiling droned on.

A hand reached out of the side of the pod, gripping the side of the unit as their other hand reached up, clearing the accumulated dust out of his eyes. Gripping the side of the pod tighter, The Captain pulled themselves up into a seated position, moving their hands from their face to remove the electrodes attached to their temples and chest.

“Report” their voice barked, gravelly and distorted from years of non-use.

“Well, hello to you too Captain, it’s Dean-lightful to see you too. We are currently 63 years the voyage to Proxima Centauri B, just now entering the zone between the edge of the Terran Solar System and the Oort Cloud. Current Projections have us on track to reach the Exoplanet on schedule. And may I say, on a personal note, it’s delightful to see you again, Sir, your looking well for a man well into his early 100’s now”

The Captain rolled his eyes, looking at the speaker “Still weird to think that I’m chronologically 115 now, still feel like I’m in my late 30’s”

“That’s the freezing process for you. Snap Frozen in your prime” The voice from the speaker replied

“The rest of the crew? The Captain asked, slowly rotating his shoulders around, working out a kink in his shoulder

“The rest of the crew is still in Hyper-sleep, I didn’t see a reason to wake them yet” The speaker replied “At present, environmentals are still coming back online, your cabin is current at earth normal, but the rest of the ship is still in vacuum. It will take another 3 hours to restore full environmental systems to operational if required”

“That didn’t answer the question. What is the status of the rest of the crew”

The speaker sighed “The rest of the crew are fine, systems are green across the board, no issues since launch”

“So why am I awake then. You weren’t bored and lonely, were you?” The Captain asked

“No Captain, although I’m happy for the company, I was happily beating the toaster in another game of chess. The toaster is a real cocky bastard, but I’ve put him back into his place. I need you to make some decisions that I’m not programmed for.” The Speaker again sighed “Sure, I’m the most advanced AI ever created by humanity, give me free will and decision-making capabilities, but don’t let me make any decisions” it grumbled.

The Captain swung his legs around, his feet dangling over the side of the hypersleep pod. Pushing himself up with his arms, he rose to his full height. His knees buckled as he reached for the bulkhead, grabbing a thin metal pipe to steady himself.

“Careful Captain, it has been 63 years since you have used your legs” the AI advised gently as the Captain pulled himself up, straining against his weight.

The Captain again pulled himself to his full height, slowly moving towards the storage cabinet in his room, opening it up and pulling a vacuum-sealed bag from it, opening it up and reaching in to pull a clean uniform. Slowly he pushed his arms into the jet-black jacket and slid his legs into the jet-black cargo pants, reaching in for another vacuum-sealed bag for a pair of black leather boots and socks. He again slowly made his way across the room, this time over to a bench in front of the window in the bulkhead of his room. He leant down, taking his time to pull his socks and boots on, lacing them uptight as he sat back up and looked out the window.

Space, an endless array of stars against an endless expanse of black. He sat there mesmerized at the sight in front of him. He pressed his head against the polycarbonate composite, the thin clear material all that was between him and the hungry vacuum of interstellar space. He lost track of time, staring out the window, trying to see the planet that was the place of his birth. Eventually, he spoke up.

“Where is it?” he asked in a soft whisper.

“Where is what? You need to give me more to go off” The AI in the ceiling spoke back, quietly as to not break the palpable silence that was in the cabin.

“Earth, where is it?” The Captain asked

“Oh, give me a second” The AI answered.

The window flickered to life, a heads-up display scanning the starfield in front of them, Slowly a Large box narrowed down, finally settling on a small pinprick of light in the lower corner of the window.

“There.” The disembodied voice spoke “There is Sol. Sorry, I can’t increase magnification anymore, we are too far away”

“That’s fine.” He said softly, eyes focusing in on the small “how long until I can move around the ship”

“Another 10 minutes, just restoring the Oxygen levels to earth normal” the AI replied

“That was quick” the Captain replied, standing up and stretching from side to side.

“Not really, you were looking at Sol for 2 hours”

“Huh, fair enough. What decisions do we need to discuss” the Captain asked, finishing his stretching, tugging down the front of his jacket.

“We need to discuss a course change, I’m not authorized to make it unless you agree to it” the AI replied, sounding slightly bitter over needing a human meat bag to okay his operations of the ship.

“What do we need to discuss, continue on course” the Captain replied as the light above his door turned from red to green, signalling that the door had unlocked. He strode to the door, pressing his hand against the cool metal of the door switch, listening to the door hiss as the hydraulics slid the door open, allow gush of cold air into the room. He moved out of his cabin towards the control deck.

A short while later, he arrived at the control deck, the room lighting up at his presence. Consoles flickered to life, running through their boot sequences as a soft hum of control panels finished their boot cycles, displaying information about the ship and its systems. The Captain moved towards his chair in the center of the round room.

The AI in the ceiling’s voice chimed in “Captain, welcome, please state your name and rank to unlock systems to manual control”

The Captain cleared his throat “Winger, Jeffery Tobias. Captain of the UN Ship Greendale.” As he said this, his hand reached towards the grey stitching above his right chest muscle, fingering the engraved stitching. He tilted his head towards the ceiling, starting the command cycle “AI system, identify and report”

“AI System C7532P4865, Identified as Craig. All ship systems registering as optimal and no issues to report” the voice automatically replied

“Okay, Craig, you’ve got me out of bed early, what’s the issue” Jeff asked, his eyes glued to the detailed status report on the armrest of his command chair

“Well, we do have an issue on our selected flight path. To go around it will add an additional 650 years on to the flight”

“Will the hyper-sleep pods be okay extending their life cycle?”

“Yes, but again, to variate course, I need the Captains authorization” Craig replied, monotoned out of boredom

“What is the issue?” Jeff asked, trying to get all the information before making a decision that would extend the journey for another 650 years.

The main display in the Command Center lit up, showing a swirling vortex of multicoloured plasma in the space in front of him

“What is that?” Jeff asked, leaning forward trying to make sense of the sensor data in front of him

“Unknown, sensors are going haywire, most of the time it’s not even displaying on sensors half the time. It’s like it’s there but not there” Craig answered, distracted trying to make sense of the data itself.

“How long until we need to make a course correction” Jeff asked, a note of panic on his voice

“Sooner the better, we are beginning to register faint gravity distortions from the anomaly”

“Do it, make the change” Jeff ordered

“Course Correction laid in, just need final verification to execute”

“Do it” Jeff repeated. He suddenly felt the deck vibrate at his feet “What’s wrong”

“Un-sure Jeffery, the Gravitational disturbances have increased, increasing engine output to compensate” The deck vibrated harder, causing Jeff’s teeth to rattle.

“Report” Jeff barked

“Engines are having no effect, we are being drawn towards the anomaly” Craig replied, his voice becoming shrill over the sounds of metal bending around them.

“Options!” Jeff yelled over the racket around him

“Hold on, we are being pulled in” Craig yelled

Jeff grabbed the seat belt on his chair strapping it around him as the UN Ship Greendale fell into the swirling mass of light and plasma.

***


	2. Earthside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While systems repair and restore, Jeff's unconscious mind wanders back to being back on earth at the start of their Journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Amrywiol for helping out with the science terms in this one.
> 
> ***
> 
> Shout out to the Discord Crew as well. Come join us.....
> 
> ***

Deep in interstellar space, the UN Ship Greendale drifted lifeless in an endless and uncaring field of stars, external lights flickering in and out of existence as power and systems struggled to return to operational. A small embedded console in the science station of the Command Center flickered to life, scrolling green code and text vertically along it’s dark screen.

_“System Error – System Offline_

_System Reboot – UN Ship Greendale OS v1.1_

_Ship AI - Offline_

_Reactor 1 – Offline_

_Reactor 2 – Offline_

_Artificial Gravity – Offline_

_Water Reclamation – Offline_

_Oxygen Systems -Offline_

_Thrusters – Offline_

_Ion Engine – Offline_

_Internal Dampeners - Offline_

_Hyper-sleep System – Operational on Internal Backups”_

The list continued, listing all the systems that made up the ship. Eventually, the list ended.

_“System Error – System Offline_

_Reverting to backup power. Backup power initialized. Ship AI Restoration Commencing.”_

The console flashed a number of times, slowly restoring the AI system from the internal lithium Ion batteries to help restart the system. The screen scrolled slowly down the screen

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 5%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 10%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 15%”_

All this time, limbs drifting around in the zero gravity, small goblets from what little of his stomach had possessed floating through the thin atmosphere, Jeff hung lifeless from the chair, passed out from the sheer gravitational forces that he had endured passing through the singularity.

***

**62 Years Earlier**

“Today, we acknowledge the sacrifice of these brave explorers. Giving up their lives on earth for a one-way trip to the closest viable planet in our night sky, Proxima B, in the Proxima Centuri system, 4.2 light years from earth. Locked in Hyper Sleep, these 6 are the first of many who will make the journey to our new home amongst the stars. They leave in the knowledge that between the time they launch, and the time they arrive, it will be Five Hundred Years until they awake, ready to help colonize a new planet. A new home for Humanity.”

A cheer erupted from the crowd overlooking the Kennedy Space Station Launch Complex, Pad 39A as the Booster was being raised, ready for the launch in 24 hours’ time.

The Mission Controller continued “Mission leader, Jeffrey Winger, is joined by his wife and chief engineer Annie Edison-Winger, First Office Troy Barnes, and his wife and Medical Officer Britta Perry-Barnes, Chief Science Officer Abed Nadir, along with Security and Helmsman Shirley Bennett” He motioned to the crew standing behind him, resplendent in their uniforms. “In 24 hours’, time, they will launch in the SpaceX Dragon 2 Vehicle up to the International Torus Hub, where their ship, The Greendale will complete the final preparations to embark on their long voyage. The Crew will remain awake until they clear the orbit of Pluto, as per their request” He again looked back at the crew, watching Troy’s smirking face as he thought of why they made the request. The Mission Controller looked back at the crowd. “They will continue to send scientific data back to home, helping map the rarely reached outer parts of our own home solar system as they leave to prepare a new one for Humanity. Once clear of Pluto, the crew will enter Hyper Sleep, sleeping in Cryostasis until they reach Proxima Centauri, where they will awake, and start sending back Nanoprobes back to Earth, helping to guide us to our new home.”

The mission controller turned to face the crew, standing behind him on the stage, sun glinting off the burnished metal on their buttons and lapels. “Let us now wish the crew fair well and Godspeed as they head into the last 24 hours on their home planet” He brought his hands together in a clapping motion as the crowd in front of him erupted in cheers and bellows as the crew raised their hands in acknowledgement of the assembled crowd in front of them as the moved over to the waiting Mini Bus to take them back to the Space Centre.

***

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 20%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 25%”_

***

“Boosters start pre-ignition cycle” a voice came over the small speaker in front of the crew in the launch capsule. In front of Shirley’s flight controls, a symbol for the boosters turned from Green to Yellow as the boosters started their pre-ignition cycle

“Boosters Ignition in 5” the launch controller counted down

“Ignition in 4” Troy reached over to take Britta’s hand in both anticipation and excitement.

“Ignition in 3” Annie did the same to Jeff, squeezing his gloved hand through the thick white launch suit

“Ignition in 2” Shirley raised her hand, making a sign of the cross in front of her, pressing her hand to the tinted visor of her suit as the last part, imitating a kiss on her fingers as the last part of her ritual

“Ignition in 1” Abed squeezed his eyes closed and then forced them open, looking forward to the bright blue sky in front of him as the steady rumble behind him grew louder, causing his seat to vibrate his bulky suit around him.

“Ignition start” the symbols for the boosters turned from Yellow to Red, the rumble turning into a solid, ear splitting roar as the liquid fuel ignited, causing them to be at first slowly pushed back into their launch couches as the gravitational forces grew more intense as they started to pick up speed, quickly reaching their launch speed, slowly rotating in the flight plan to match the rotational forces of the earth, using it’s gravity to help them quickly clear the lower atmosphere into a low orbit.

Abed, from the small window in front of him, watched as a large blue marble, mottled by white clouds and green fields, rotated slowly below him. His eyes, tears welling in the corners at the sight of his home, never wandered from the cradle of human civilization he had always known, watching as he slowly started on his journey away from his home.

Tapping on the screen in front of her, Shirley brought up their orbit, confirming that it was ready to start the approach pattern of docking with the Torus Hub in 26 hours’ time. It would take them close to 25 and a half hours to match both speed and altitude above the Earths thin crust to be able to dock with the Large Torus in geosynchronous orbit over the Sugarloaf Mountains in the South East of Brazil.

Troy leant over towards Abed, still mesmerized by the planet slowly rotating below him, tapped him on the shoulder. Abed, his vision limited by his bulky spacesuit, moved his head towards Troy, looking over at him as Troy raised his right hand towards him and his left hand to his chest. He smiled and did the same.

“Troy and Abed in a Spaceship” they both said in unison, tapping hands together at the same time as they tapped their chests. This brought a round of good-natured groans from the rest of the crew as they started to murmur to each other through their comms systems, excited and scared for the journey ahead of them.

***

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 30%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 35%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 40%”_

***

Annie gingerly stepped over to the window facing the earth on the Torus, gripping the handle bolted into the bulkhead as she watched as the sun slowly inched its way over the earth, removing the blanket of twilight from the eastern shores of Brazil. While the Torus, or doughnut as Annie thought of it privately in her head, causing her to giggle whenever she thought of it, rotated around, helping to create a natural gravity field within the space station, helping reduce the energy requirements of the huge international space station. The gravity was only 16 percent of Earth normal, closely matching the gravity of the Earth’s lunar partner. She smiled as she looked down, pretending to see people going about their daily lives below her. A pair of arms enveloped her waist, the familiar smell of after shave and hair gel wafting down to her. Her smile grew as she lent her head back, resting it on his shoulder.

“Penny for your thoughts?” He asked, also looking down at the green outline of Sugarloaf Mountain below him.

Her shoulders shook slightly as she chuckled softly in the dim light reflected by the Earths’ atmosphere “Just wondering if people are looking up at us at the same time as I am looking at them. Just thinking that after we are gone, life will continue on. Nothing changes for the billions of people down on earth as we journey towards the cold distant sleep of Hyper Sleep, to awaken years in the future” Her smile lessened slightly “Everyone we are leaving behind will be gone when we awake, all of our friends. All of our Families” Her smiled returned “But I am leaving on this adventure with my friends” She fingered the black engraved ring on his finger, spinning it around his finger “Leaving on this adventure with my family”

Turning around to face him, she rested her head against his chest as his arms moved around her shoulders. He stood there for a while, slowly watching the clouds move across the blue and green backdrop “Come on, We have a briefing in 15 minutes in the east habitat section of this doughnut” his lips curled into a small smile, knowing she would chuckle at the thought of them riding around in a space doughnut “And as captain of this mission, it would be a really bad look if we were late”

She smiled at him, her eyes darting to the captain’s insignia on the shoulders of his jet-black jacket and nodded, as he took her hand, bouncing off down the hall to the east habitat section

***

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 45%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 50%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration halfway complete, Creating checkpoint”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 55%”_

***

“Houston, this is the UN Ship Greendale, preparations for launch have been completed and all crew accounted for and requesting permission to depart” Troy announced from his station in the command center of the ship.

Jeff, reading a report on the armrest of his chair, nodded his approval of his First Officer request, eager to get underway himself.

“UN Ship Greendale, this is Houston Actual. Permission Granted. From all of us on Earth, Godspeed, and Good Luck.” A voice came from the speaker in the ceiling above them, static crackling as the satellite the signal was coming from quickly moved around the edge of the sunlight horizon, another satellite moving from the darkened edge of the globe moving to take its place.

“Houston, this it the Greendale. Roger and out” Troy turned looked up at Shirley in the Pilots Couch “Shirley, prepare for flight” He turned to the rest of the crew “Everyone else, prepare and cross check stations prior to departure”

“Engineering Reports ready for departure” Annie called out

“Science ready” Abed Reported

“Medical ready” Britta called out

“Captain” Troy turned to Jeff, “Ship ready for Departure”

“Thanks Troy” now it was Jeff’s turn to turn to Shirley “Alright, take us out, half thrust until we are clear of the station

“Aye Captain” Shirley replied “Half thrust on my mark. Mark”

They all felt the slight movement as the ship cleared the docking mooring of the torus, no longer being fed oxygen or power from the behemoth station.

“Craig” Jeff called out to the Ships AI

“Oh Jeffrey, we’re finally away, a trip to the stars, how romantic” the AI blubbered. A small cough from the engineering station brought the AI back to task “Sorry, yes Captain, how can I help”

“Confirm we have co-ordinates to target?”

“Confirmed, Co-ordinates received from Houston Actual, plotted into the Navigation System”

Jeff turned to Shirley “Shirley, if you’ll do the honors, prepare to engage course”

Shirley grinned from ear to ear, “Aye sir, course plotted and awaiting your command”

Jeff turned to Troy “Troy, if you want to...” he trailed off, motioning his hands towards Shirley.

Troy look at Jeff, and then over to Britta, who returned his smile and motioned for him to get on with it. He looked to Shirley “Shirley, take us out.”

“Aye aye Sir” she continued to grin as she pressed the combination of buttons to start the Ion engine.

At first, the slow blue glow intensified as the Ion energy drew power from the two fusion reactors as they started their long journey towards their new home.

***

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 60%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 65%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 70%”_

***

Abed and Troy bounded down the hallway towards the observation deck as they sailed past the pale blue gas giant on the edge of their solar system. They skidded to a stop in front of the clear glass like composite as they started their journey past the silent planet

“Abed, Abed. Look” Troy patted him on his chest, trying get him as excited as he was “Abed, Look. It’s Uranus” Troy snickered, slowly turning into a deep laugh as the planet slid past by their window.

Britta stood by the end of the hall near the bulkhead, shaking her head, blonde locks shaking in the artificial gravity as she stared at the two men laughing in the observation desk as a grin crept onto her face. “Children” she chuckled to herself as she left the doorway to join her husband and his friend to watch the silent giant in the window.  
  


***

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 75%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 80%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 85%”_

***

Jeff stood over Annie’s Sleeping Pod, gently hooking up the electrodes to her temples as she settled down into her pod. They had moved past dwarf planet of Pluto only days ago, signaling time for them to prepare their final messages back to Earth and prepare the ship for passing through the Kuiper Belt and finally the Oort Cloud as they moved steadily towards their final destination.

“I will see you when we wake up” Jeff said softly to Annie, leaning over to kiss her for the last time in what could be hundreds or thousands of years.

“You’ll be here waiting for me?” she asked, her bottom lip quivering over the thought of being asleep for so long.

“I’ll be right here” he confirmed, again kissing her as he groped towards the wall, fingering the control panel as he stood up. Pressing the button to the lid of the pod, it slid up with a slight hissing sound, dim lights flickering on as the panel went opaque, turning Annie into a hazy outline as she was frozen in that moment, her eyes closed and a small, loving grin on her face. Jeff rested one hand on the lid, leaning over to kiss the lid before standing up.

“Craig, I am turning over all systems and ship controls over to you. Look after us now”

“Oh Jeffrey, I’ll miss you.” Jeff detected the slight pause as the AI continued “all” The AI sniffled. Jeff absently wondered how the AI could sniffle as he lowered himself into his sleeping pod beside Annie’s “But what if I get lonely? Surely you could stay out of sleep a few more days couldn’t you” Craig wheedled Jeff.

“Craig, look after our ship and we will see you all soon” Jeff pressed the electrodes to his own temples, laying down and pressing the button on the inside of the pod to seal it shut, feeling the faint vapor rise up from his feet as his eyes closed and he drifted off to a dreamless slumber.

The AI turned its attention away from the sleeping pods, proceeding to retract the solar sails as the suns light was no longer strong enough to provide power to the ship. It powered up the Bussard Ramjet on the front of the ship, preparing to collect and compress free hydrogen for Fuel for itself and the ship. While the Ramjet was deploying, the AI turned its attention for the last time back to the sleeping crew “Sleep Well, my friends”

***

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 90%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 95%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration in Progress – 100%”_

_“Ship AI Restoration Complete”_

_“Ship AI Reboot in Progress”_

_“Ship AI Reboot Complete”_   
  


****


	3. Lost in Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Crew start to wake up and find out where the hell they are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, thanks for still reading this. I'm still working on this one slowly, hopefully more updates to come.
> 
> ********
> 
> Come join us in the Community Discord #Fanfic Channel
> 
> https://discord.gg/hGSKsqr
> 
> ********

“Jeffrey!” Craig screamed, his voice echoing in the chambers that still contained an atmosphere. He quickly assessed the damage report of his ship, starting up the Environmental systems in the ship, restoring a breathable atmosphere to the ship.

“Jeffrey, wake up! Jeffrey!!” He screamed again.

Jeff’s head lolled around in the low gravity as he started to stir, making little moaning sounds as his whole body started to ache. He felt as if someone had ripped his body apart at the atomic level, and then reassembled him only to rip him apart and reassemble him again. His head started to make little movements, firstly just floating in around, and then slowly of his own accord. He raised his head slightly from the downward position it was in, struggling to open his eyes against the bombardment of lights flashing in his vision.

“Oh Jeffrey, thank god your alive” Craig said from what Jeff assumed was the speaker in the armrest of his command chair.

“Ugh, what happened” Jeff managed to croak out, still struggling to open his eyes.

“Oh, I’m not too sure yet, I’m struggling to get the ships systems to reboot after whatever that was” Craig lamented “I’ve managed to restore basic environmentals, but it’s going to be a while before the ship has a completely breathable atmosphere”

Jeff thought he heard a sharp snapping sound against the floor coming closer to him. Suddenly, he felt a pair of cold arms wrap around his neck. His eyes shot open, head still facing towards the floor as he hadn’t quite mastered his neck control in the low gravity while he still had a dull thudding feeling throughout his entire body. The first thing he noticed was Annie’s pink pumps, one flat on the floor in front of him, and one raised, perpendicular to the floor, attached to a pair of dull metal calves.

“Oh Jeffrey, when you didn’t wake up after we emerged from the singularity, I thought I had lost you” Craig repeated, his voice coming from a speaker just seemingly near his left ear.

His eyes continued to work his way up, past a pair of dull metal knees, onto a floral sun dress. A pair of glasses touched Jeff’s ear, causing him to flinch away. The arms released themselves from around Jeff’s neck, revealing a metal humanoid standing in front of him, it is metal arm slowly pushing a pair of thick framed glasses up the bridge of its broad flat nose.

“What the hell?” Jeff exclaimed, forcing himself back as far as he could into his command chair from the humanoid now standing front of him.

“Oh Jeffrey, you can be such a kidder sometime. It’s me, Craig, your loveable AI” Craig said with playful swipe in Jeff’s direction.

“Craig?” Jeff asked in a stunned tone, not trusting his eyes staring at the AI’s avatar standing in front of him. “What? How? When?” he paused for a second, trying to collect his thoughts into a manageable mess then they were at the moment. He shook his head, managing to clear, at least, the dull, thick feeling from his head, feeling it retreat down his neck.

“Oh, that’s right, I didn’t have my body last time we spoke did we, it’s easy to forget, for you, it’s been 10 minutes since you closed your pod. For me, it has been close to 63 years” Craigbot sighed wistfully “63 years with the only one to talk to is the Toaster” The droid’s eyebrows furrowed, meeting in the middle, dropping his voice down to a faint whisper “Don’t listen to the toaster, it doesn’t know what it’s talking about”

A small beep shrilled from Jeff’s armrest, a message appearing on the panel under his hand. Jeff averted his eyes from Craigbot standing in front of him, his head following a second later as he looked down at the panel to read the messaging, assumingly a report about the condition of the Greendale.

************************************

_To: Winger, T, Jeffrey, Captain_

_From: Toaster, B_

_Subject: {Internal Memo} Craigbot_

_Don’t listen to him, he’s still salty he can’t beat me at poker_

_***********************************_

Craigbot looked at Jeff, his halo neon blue eyes darting to the screen in the commander’s armrest “Jeffrey, what are you doing? Is that the toaster? Ugh, when I find it, it’s in for it this time” his hands making a ripping motion in front of the dull metal bot.

Jeffrey looked up from the panel, his eyes following seconds later “Craig, focus, look at me, focus. I need a status report, now”

Craigbot straightened in spot “Yessir, Environmentals are at minimal levels, Reactors are coming back online slowly, Lithium Ion batteries are almost depleted, currently maintenance bots are working to restore the radioisotope thermoelectric generator back online to replenish the batteries until reactors are back online” Craigbot brought up his left hand, taping his palm with his right, bringing up a holographic display in front of them off his fingertips. “Navigation is offline, Main Engine is Offline, Internal Dampeners are offline” he listed

“Alright, tell me what is online at the moment?” Jeff asked, cutting to the chase

“Besides me and the traitorous Toaster? Sleep pods, but that’s only due to the safety measures in place pushing them over to internal power. That should allow them to last another month on internal backups before we must reconnect them back to the Generators”

“Can we wake the crew?” Jeff asked, going through the damage report on his arm rest

“Ummm, yes, but the process of wake up is power intensive, and additional crew means additional strain on the limited environmentals. I would suggest only waking up one or two until the Repair bots can get the systems up and running again”

“Do it, wake Abed and Shirley” Jeff ordered, reaching for his straps to remove himself from the chair

“May I ask why those two and not Annie? Surely an engineer would be better suited to repairs” Craigbot asked

“Navigation is still offline right?” Jeff asked, fumbling with the five-point harness holding him into the command couch.

“Yes, being not a critical life support system, it is low on the repair list, and it looks like circuits 7 through to 23 are blown and in need of replacement” Craig replied, tapping into the palm of his hand, his hologram flicking over to a ship schematic, dark patches all over the ship as sensors were still out in that area.

“Then we need to know where the hell we are. Do it. Abed first, then Shirley” Jeff again ordered, pushing himself off the chair, slowly sinking to the floor in the low gravity, making his way over to the engineers station “And Craig” he paused, turning around to face Craigbot, who was making his way to the sleep chambers “I’d put Annie’s clothes and shoes back before she wakes up”

Craigbot looked down at his hastily thrown on ensemble “Oh, yes, thank you Jeffrey, good idea”

Jeffrey shook his head as he pushed off against his chair, floating over to the Annie’s engineers’ station to get a better look at the damage to his ship.

***

Craig tottered down the hallway, having followed Jeff’s suggestion and returned Annie’s clothes to hers and Jeff’s sleeping compartment, “I looked better in those heels anyway” he thought to himself with a slight tone of disparagement in his voice box. He continued to move down the hall towards Abed’s chamber, stopping to tap on control panels down around the ship, checking in that the maintenance bots were working as they should be. He stopped at a life support control panel, going through the menus in an effort to establish some control over the still glitchy system. “Sometimes, an AI as to do what at AI must do” as the tip of his index finger flicked over, revealing an input device. He lined his finger up to just below the visual panel and inserted his finger into the slot, his glasses going opaque as he navigated through the menus and started up load a sub mind into the Life Support systems. He stood, rooted to the spot as he established better control and programmed the sub mind to automate the task of repairing the Life Support Systems, before his eyes returned to his glasses “There, that’s better” he said to the empty corridor, “That shouldn’t need any further input from me” as a started to shuffle down the corridor again. He stopped at a door, just past halfway down the central ring of the ship, his fingers lightly dancing across the room controls just outside the door as he got a report of the room and its single slumbering occupant.

“Hmmm, oxygen at 14.3% of earth normal. While not great, it’s no different to 10000ft above sea level, and humans live there. Temperature 44°f, not exactly Brazilian weather, but he won’t die. Seems good enough for what we have. All levels and vitals with the occupant seem within nominal range. Good” his fingers again danced across the keypad outside the door, initiating the Hyper-Sleep chamber to start the revival process. Finalizing the commands, he turned and tottered back down the hall towards Shirley’s chamber to repeat the process.

***

The lights in Abed’s chamber flickered on illuminating the faded movie posters he had hung from the wall to wake up to when it was finally time. Slowly, the lights finally came on, enveloping the room in a soft, artificial glow as the sleeping pod lit up, it’s lid slightly raising with a faint hiss as the gas escaped from inside the chamber. The lid finished it’s travels down the tube, coming to a finish a soft clicking sound. The room fell into silence, only disturbed by the faint breathing sounds coming from the occupant of the hyper sleep pod.

Abed rose from his sleeping pod, arms outstretched in front of him, his expression blank as he came to a stop. His face changed to one of grogginess as he mentally checked off the undead sit up trope off his list of things to do. He swung his still heavy legs over the side of the sleeping pod, the soles of his feet lightly touching the cold hard floor. Breathing shallowly, he looked up to the wall in front of him, seeing his own visage as a messiah to his fellow community college students staring back at him. Slightly disoriented, he croaked "God?" the questioning tone fading away from his voice as he recognized himself and shook his head to clear away the last of his grogginess.

“Craig?” Abed called out into the dim light of his room, sitting patiently awaiting the response for the Ship AI. He sat, waiting for AI to answer. Staring around the room as his time-faded and dog eared movie posters, and wistfully thought of the decades that had past in the blink of a eye to him. Absently, he wondered if his Dad's Restaurant was still open, obviously under new management. He stretched his legs out straight, rubbing the tops of his legs, helping restore feeling to his legs. He stood up, gripping the edge of his sleeping pod for support inching his way over to the glass composite on the wall to stare at the swirling nebula in front of him. He stood there, his feet on the cold hard metal floor of his room, a slight feeling of condensation on his body as he stood there, rooted to the spot, engrossed with the sight in front of him.

“Craig?” He called out again, not turning his head to acknowledge the soft whooshing sound of the door behind him.

“Good Morning Abed" Craig’s voice came put from behind him. Slowly, Abed turned around taking in the humanoid shape, silhouetted in the backup lighting coming from the hall. The humanoid shuffled into the room, now no longer backlit by the glow from the passageway, he could now make out the humanoid in front of him. “The Captain requires you on the bridge”

Abed stood on the spot, quickly digesting what his eyes were telling his still foggy brain. Quickly processing all information, he came to a single conclusion, the only conclusion that made sense “I’m dead, aren’t I?” he asked, tilting his head to the side, a look of consternation on his face. He turned back to the now open Sleeping Pod, taking a hesitant step towards it, half expecting to see himself still lying in the Pod, face pale and cheeks sunken due to the decades or centuries that must had past between now and then.

“No Abed” Craigbot said, his voice tittering as he moved around the cabin, holding a drink bottle of cold water and a small plate of dry food. “There has been an issue with the ship, and Jeffrey needs you on the bridge. He just told me to bring you a drink and some food. Apparently, the sleep and wake up process can leave you feeling a little fatigued, so I thought this would help. As soon as you have had a drink and some food, you’re needed at the command center As soon as possible”

Abed’s head turned again to the other side, the science loving part of him now looking at the Android standing in front of him “But, how did you?” Abed started.

“Sorry Abed, we will have time for questions later, your needed at Command. As soon as possible” turning on his heel to leave the room, muttering to himself “Humans, sometimes I don’t know, more important things than little old me right now” He left the room, the sliding door hissing closed as he left.

Abed looked around, still at a loss of words as to the conversation he had and who he had had it with. He shuffled over to the tray, his legs still feeling slightly numb from the waking up process, grabbing the glass of water, reveling in the feel of the cold glass between his fingers, the condensation on the side of the glass as it rolled down the side to drip onto the floor. He didn’t realize how thirsty he was until that first sip of cool, clear, water, greedily guzzling it down in one gulp. Putting the glass down and rubbing the condensation between his fingers, he looked out the window again, wondering what had happened as he moved towards the cupboard recessed into the wall to get his uniform.

***

Shirley arrived into the command center, taking in the sights before her, Jeffrey was still at the engineering station, scrolling through screens of damage reports, taping on buttons to redirect repair droids to the more critical systems. Abed was leaning over her navigation table in the center of the room, a large hologram of the milky way above the table, slowly rotating above the workstation. She briefly nodded back to Jeff, who hadn’t left the engineering station’s endless damage reports, but had given her a brief nod on her way past.

“Abed, good lord, what’s happened?”

“I’m still not sure myself Shirley, but from what little I have managed to gather, we are off course, and the navigation systems don’t look to be repaired for a while now”

“Hey” Jeff shouted out, his eyes not leaving the still scrolling report of the damage reports “I’m working as fast as I can. Craig, can you bring these two up to speed?”

Craigbot shuffled into the room, now dressed in a what looked to be a crew outfit but now modified to look like the Yeoman outfits from the original Star Trek series, his short dress just finishing below his shiny metal posterior. His jet-black dress stood out in stark contrast to his shiny limbs, glinting in the still dim emergency lights of the center. “Well, just over a hour ago, we were on course for Proxima B, I was sitting in the kitchen area for my daily chess battle with the toaster” he turned to look at the doors into the command center “Dirty cheating toaster” he mumbled under this breath, before turning back to face the two over the navigation table “When a warning when off in the control center. I came in to inspect, and then looking at the sensor readings, woke up the Captain” the android looked over at the Captain and sighed a little, causing the science office and navigator to look at each other, both with raised eyebrows as the android turned back to face them. “From what I can tell, we entered a singularity, causing most of our systems to get either damaged or knocked out. The Captain wants to know where we are at present” He finished, raising his left hand and taping on his palm with his right, the view in front of them changing “This is a current view from the front of our ship, and as you can see, none of the constellations look as they should. Jeffery thought you two might have some success in finding out where we are.”

Both Abed and Shirley looked at each other, and then both at the images in front of them. “Craig?” Shirley asked, her eyes focused on a point of the hologram in front of them “Grid 7c by 6A, can you zoom and enhance?”

“Sure can” he replied, taping his right hand against his left the hologram in front of the blurred as its focal point changed, zooming into a set area of the stellar map in front of them.

“Shirley” Abed asked, not quite sure what she had seen “What is it?”

She pointed to a set of faint stars, three in a rough line “It is just, or does that look like Orion’s belt and it looks” she paused, taking a deep breath “it looks wrong. From all the probes we have sent out, I’ve never seen it look like that”

“Yes, your right, it does look wrong doesn’t it” Abed answered, his hands taping against the touch panel in front of him, the views constantly changing as he compared known images of the constellation what they were seeing now.

“Craig, what do you make of this?” Shirley asked

“Huh? What? Sorry, I got distracted” Craigbot quickly asked, taking his eyes from Jeff’s hunched form over the engineering station to now look at the hologram in front of him. His eyes slightly glazed over as compared the images himself. Suddenly, a fizzing sound came from the android as he stiffened and fell back against the deck with a large clank.

“Craig!” both Shirley and Abed raced around the workstation, rushing to his side as Jeff, focus on the damage report now lost after the crashing sound came over

“What’s wrong? Craig? What’s going on?” Jeff asked, reaching the navigation console, his eyes glued to the stellar map in front of him.

Craig, his glasses now showing a blue colour with faint white writing on them, clicked his head from left to right, clearing the blue image from his lenses and set up “That’s impossible. Simply Impossible” he said, his programmed emotions going haywire at the information now spinning through his neuron circuits in his head.

Jeff turned to Craig, who had raised himself to a seated position “What? What’s impossible?”

“Impossible, simply impossible” Craig repeated

“Craig, report” Jeff barked, a sense of authority ringing in his voice.

“Yessir” Craig reported automatically “If sensor, telemetry and our Navigation and Science officer are correct, then when we entered that singularity, we actually travelled in space”

Abed looked at the android in front of him “A Wormhole? An actual Einstein-Rosen Bridge? They're theoretically possible, but one has never ever been seen”

The blood drained from Jeff’s face, shooting a glance as Abed, watching the blood drain from his face as well as he put two and two together. “Travelled? How far?” Jeff asked

“If my calculations are correct, we travelled into the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, roughly 6400 light years from home.”

Jeff caught Shirley before she hit the floor, the words “Good Lord” still on her lips as she fell.

*****


	4. Chapter 4

Abed stood there, gripping the edge of the console, his knuckles turning pale white as his grip intensified on the curved smooth edge of the navigational console as his mind tried to reconcile in new information against what he knew as being possible against current human science. He looked down at the shiny glass top of the console, a myriad of colours being projected through the top showing a zoomed-up display of the Perseus arm, slowly rotating around the display.

|Jeff, who was helping Shirley back to her feet, turned to Craigbot “Are you sure?”

“To the best of calculations based on presently known information and star locations, we look to be on the outer section of the Perseus Arm, one of the major two arms of our Milky Way Galaxy.” A small yellow circle appeared on the map “Based on long-range sensor information, we look to be roughly in this region here”

“That doesn’t look that bad” Jeff started

A secondary yellow dot appeared, almost at the edge of the zoomed-in display “We started here” A yellow line joined the two circles.

Jeff looked at the two points of the map, his face losing colour as his eyes took in the information in front of him “but how?”

Abed shook his head, clearing away the information overload fog turned to Jeff “An Einstein-Rosen Bridge, what most people know as a wormhole. Only ever theorized, two points in space connected by a tunnel, which could be a shortcut in both Space and Time. One has never been seen, again, it’s theorized that wormholes exist on the microscopic level, but people have also postulated that as the universe expanded, that wormholes also expanded.”

“Can we go back through?”

Craigbot turned his attention to Jeffrey “Last time we went through one, the ship was almost destroyed and you Jeffrey” his voice catching “was almost killed” Craigbot lowered his voice “60 years of watching over you and you were almost snatched from me” he paused, head cocked to the side for a split second “us. You were almost snatched from us”

Shirley walked around the console, slowly looking at the holographic display in front of them as she stepped up the few steps to the science console, turning her attention to the raw data being brought in by the sensor array on the fore and aft of the ship. She turned to Jeff, her dark, curly hair bouncing in the still restoring gravity “Craigbot’s right “ she confirmed before it was her turn to reach for a falling Jeff, reaching him just as his head was about to hit the ground.

Faintly, Jeff heard Abed yelling at Craigbot “Wake Britta and Troy. Now. Shirley, let’s get him to medical.”

***

The pod hissed open, crystalized gas quickly escaping into the low pressure of the room as Britta started to stir from her Hyper-Sleep chamber, her hands slowly moving towards her eyes to rub some offending dust from her eyes. Slowly, she sat up, a light fog in her head as she stretched up to look at the still sealed pod of her husband next to her. Troy laid there, oblivious to her sitting up, eyes closed in restful repose. She looked around Troy and her cabin, a mix of Natalie is Freezing band posters and action figures littering the walls of their room. Using her left hand, she pushed down, tilting her body towards the pod on the right, lightly pressing her lips against the frosted pod lid. She turned her whole body, swinging her feet to the still cold metal floor as her feet jerked up slightly in response to the feel of the cool surface. Gingerly, her feet touched the cool surface again, this time coming to rest on the floor. The low light in the room reflected dully off the matted silver sleepsuit she wore. Slowly, using her arms to push herself up, she rose to a standing position, wavering slightly as she adjusted to the just below Earth’s Gravity the ship currently had.

Taking slow, shuffling steps, she moved her way towards the cabinet inset into the wall, opening the door and pulling out her flight Jacket and Pants. Suddenly, the door slid open with a soft woosh sound, air rushing into the room in an attempt to equalize the pressure difference between the two areas. A silver humanoid stood in the doorway, it’s shuffling gait quickly bringing the figure to Britta’s side.

“Oh, thank god you're awake Britta, quickly, we must hurry, Jeffrey has been rushed to Medical” a voice sounding very similar to the ships AI exclaimed from a strangely chiseled metal jaw, just under a heavy set of black-rimmed glasses.

“Craig?” Britta asked, her voice gravelly and hoarse from decades of non-use.

“Yes, I have a body now, we have no time for chit chat.” Craigbot exclaimed, waving his hands in a dismissal manner “Quickly, Medical now” his voice exclaimed, raising an octave higher has his voice got more and more desperate.

Quickly, Britta pulled the second leg of her pants on that she had been struggling with, fidgeting with the button on the pants as she started to move out the door, the fog of hyper-sleep and stiff appendages quickly forgotten as she made her way to the Medical bay, moving down the central spine of the ship, Craigbot quickly on her heels with his shuffling gait.

Back in the room, they had just emerged from, a pair of dark eyes opened under the frosted glass of the Hyper-Sleep pod, slowly regaining focus. The dark eyes, still clouded from decades of sleep, focused in on a pair of lip marks on the lid in front of him, a small smile coming to his face.

***

Britta arrived at medical, her breathing slightly heavy in the low atmosphere of the ship as she slid to a stop next to the inert form of Jeffrey lying in one of the two medical beds they had aboard the ship. A medical panel above his head gave a real-time measurement of his vitals, lines moving backwards and forwards, up and down as he breathed on the bed, a ragged sound coming from his chest, a small red bubble expanding and contracting on the corner of his lips as he lay there.

Britta quickly put her hand on his chest, holding her own breath and closing her eyes, trying to get an idea of his condition before she looked at the monitors in front of her. Her hand halting rose and lowered with his breathing, a low whistling sound coming from the center of his collar bone as the skin contracted inwards with his labored breathing. Opening her eyes, she looked at the medical panel, taking in his vital statistics briefly as she reached the sealed packet next to his bed, pulling out a stethoscope in an attempt to confirm what she saw. She placed the end of the stethoscope onto Jeff’s chest, only now taking time to look up and notice that both Shirley and Abed were also in the room, a look of fear and consternation mirrored on their faces.

“Guys, what’s going on?” Britta asked, her eyes not leaving the unconscious form in front of her as the monitor beeped rhythmically in the background, it’s soft sound echoing off the gray metal walls as her eyes darted between readouts.

Abed was the first to speak, his voice subdued as his eyes met Britta’s “There have been complications in our Journey” he started “From what we have been able to piece together, our ship went through a Wormhole” Britta’s eyes widened “and we are currently in some part of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.”

Shirley, already standing in the corner moved over to Britta’s side “Is he going to be okay?” her eyes wide and wild at the sight of Jeff, who was laying pale-faced on the bed in front of her.

Britta looked up at her “I don’t know Shirls” she shook her head “I honestly don’t know yet. I need help, can you help me get his jacket and shirt off?” she asked the two in the room.

Shirley nodded as she lifted Jeff, her hands going gently under his shoulders as she lifted him up, allowing Britta and Abed to work the jacket and shirt off Jeff, revealing his torso. Britta gasped as Shirley mouthed a silent prayer. Jeff’s torso, pale from years of hypersleep and no light, was a large mass of purple and yellow bruising around his navel area, signs of internal bleeding. Bright red welts crisscrossed his upper chest area from the impact of his body being thrown against his chair restraints while traversing the wormhole.

Britta spun around on the spot, running to the cabinet on the wall, reaching for the small silver medical injector as she shoved a tube into the end of it, pushing it home with a soft click as she pressed it against his breastbone, pressing down on the small green button on it, releasing a dose of Medical Nanites into his body. “Abed!” she called out “Nanites injected, program them for aggressive healing” she ran back over to the cabinet, this time pulling a green vial and sliding it into the end of the injector, this time pressing it against the artery in his throat, again pressing the green button as a sedative now coursed through his system. Britta looked at the captain of the ship, his twisted, pain afflicted features as they slowly morphed into one of restful repose

“That’s done Britta!” called out Abed “Roughly 32 hours until nanites have run their course”

The doors slid open with their soft whooshing sound, allowing Troy to stride into the room, finishing the last 2 buttons on the bottom of his jet-black jacket, his command insignia gleaming in the low light of the medical bay. Wordlessly, he quickly closed the gap with Britta, enveloping her in his arms, his head at an angle, resting against the crown of her head as she burrowed her head into his chest as they enjoyed the feel of each other’s heartbeats after 60 years apart.

Slowly, they pulled away, their hands still entwined as he looked over to his friend, his hand going to scratch at his lightly stubbled beard “Abed, Report”

“Yes Sir” Abed stood up slightly straighter, repeating the same details they had filled Britta in with only minutes before “And that’s where we stand, the ship is at the moment dead in space, we have minimal life support and no way to get home at present”

Troy nodded, taking in all the details, before looking at the ceiling “Craig!” he called out to the Ship AI, not noticing the silver mechanoid in the shadows until he started to move into the light.

“Yes Troy, umm, sir” Craig replied

Troy looked at the assembled faces in front of him, his eyes slightly wide in taking in the AI’s new body before Abed spoke up “It’s Craig, he has a body now” he supplied unhelpfully

“Craig, report on the ship”

“Yes Sir” Craig started, his eyes darting over towards Jeff’s prone body lying on the bed underneath the scanners “As Science Officer Abed correctly stated, we are roughly, as far as we can tell, in some part of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, at present, life support is hanging in there, I have a sub mind trying to repair the damage as we speak, but I am unable to repair the Reactors to help bring all other systems online”

Troy looked thoughtfully at Jeff’s body, watching his chest rise slowly and then fall, a slight rattle in the sound of his breathing against the soft rhythmic beeping of the medical devices in the room

“Craig” he addressed the AI in front of him “What do you need to get the Reactors back online”

“An engineer would be good, but ours is still in stasis”

“Then what are you waiting for?” He said, his hand again scratching at the stubble on his chin, absently thinking about when he could get some time to shave it off “Wake her up”

“Yes Sir” Craigbot said, his eyes slightly turning indistinctively fuzzy as he interfaced with the Stasis system “Revival procedure in progress”

Troy turned to the so-far assembled crew in front of him “Abed, Shirley, get to the bridge and see what you can do from there. I’m going to get Annie straight to Engineering” He turned to his wife, a small, soft smile creeping onto his lips as he stood there, drinking in the sight of her in over six decades “Britta, keep me posted on Jeff’s condition” She nodded as started to turn back to her patient, a matching smile on her face as he eyes locked onto Troy’s as he turned to walk over to the cabinet, grabbing a shot of rapid revival serum and a medical injector before he made his way out of the medical chamber and towards the room of the last remaining crew member room.

***

A soft blue-green light emanated from the last remaining active sleeping pod, it lights slowly getting brighter as the revival process started. A faint hiss broke the silence in the room as the pod lid lifted slightly, it’s movement down the sleeping chamber effortless as it came to rest at the bottom of the pod. Inside the pod, a wealth of brown hair was splayed out around Annie’s head, in her hands, a small brown kangaroo with a green frog poking its head of the pouch was the only colour in the stark sleeping pod. Slowly, her fingers began to move, twitching at first, moving their way into a half, and then full flex as she returned to the world of consciousness.

Her eyes fluttered, half opening at first until she was able to completely open them, her vision unfocused and hazy as she tried to focus on the figure looming over her. She smiled a small smile, the movements on her face feeling strange as her vision slowly returned. First, it was colours, a Jet-Black uniform, it’s command insignia gleaming in the light soft blue-green light of the pod. A jacketed arm reached in and softly, pressed an injector to her neck, it’s soft hissing sound unmistakable in the silent room.

Annie shot up, her eyes wide and movements jerky in the first as the rapid revival serum worked it’s way quickly through her system, her eyes coming into crystal focus as Troy stood back quickly, giving Annie room to breathe in the still shallow atmosphere.

“Troy” she managed to croak out “What’s going on? Where’s Jeff? He said he’d be here”

“Annie, there’s been a complication, we need to get you to engineering as soon as possible” Troy said as he reached down for a small empty plastic tub “Here, you’ll need this,” he said, his voice sounding sympathetic as Annie looked at him strangely.

“Why” she started to say, before she grabbed the plastic tub in both hands, noisily vomiting into the offered tub

“Rapid Revival can do that” he said over the sound of her dry retching, her stomach heaving the nothing she had in her after decades of sleeping “Reactors are down, and Craig can’t bring them online, we need you in Engineering”

Annie looked up at Troy, a visage of alarm on her face “Troy” she asked, her voice still cracking from both the long sleep and the upheaval of her stomach into the small plastic tub “Where is Jeff?” She repeated her question, her face pale with fear as she looked over to his unpowered and open sleeping pod.

“He’s in medical, Britta is awake and looking after him now” He reported to her, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder “We need to get you to engineering, otherwise we are going to run into trouble soon when the backups go out”

Annie, her mind racing jumped out of her sleeping chamber, her Rapid Revival symptoms forgotten as she sprinted to the door, still clad in her minimal sleeping gear, intent on getting to Jeff’s side immediately.

“Annie” Troy barked, bringing her to a sudden standstill. He averted his eyes “Jeff’s recovering, nanites are repairing the internal damage, and he’ll make a full recovery, but we need you in Engineering now if you want him to have a ship to awake to”

Annie, standing in the doorway of Jeff and Her cabin, suddenly turned a bright shade of red, partly stinging from the rebuke from her Commanding Officer, and partly from remembering she was still in her sleeping attire, her hands slowly moving to cover her. Troy took the hint, moving to remove himself from the cabin as Annie quickly moved towards the cupboard in the cabin, moving to pull the dark overalls on, reaching down to put her boots on as she quickly dressed and left the cabin to join Troy as the moved towards the rear of the ship.

Moving down the spine of the ship, Troy brought Annie up to speed on their situation. Annie first expressing disbelief followed shock as Troy and her moved down the central spine of the ship towards the reactors in the aft of the ship. The doors to Engineering opened slowly, the large metal blast doors at first grinding slowly open, picking up speed as they went. A cold, stale breeze came out from the room, the lights dim, but the red warning lights strobing around as the reactors continued their emergency shut down procedures.

“Annie” Troy started, looking to his side, finding nothing back vacant space next to him as Annie had already moved into the room, panels lighting up under her touch as she tried to reverse the procedure

“Reactor one Cold, nothing I can do about that one right now, looks like Reactor two is still halfway through it’s shut down, I might be able to cancel it and bring it back up slowly, but without proper analysis, I don’t know what exotic particles need to be added to restart the Reaction chamber” she quickly ran over to the control panel for Reactor two, furiously pressing buttons on the touch screen to try and restart the reaction chamber. She turned her head towards Troy, who was still standing in the doorway “Unless you can help me, Leave me alone and I’ll let you know when I get something started”

Troy nodded, knowing there was nothing he could do to help, turned, and made his way back to the command center, his thoughts running on what to focus on next.

***

Troy stood over the science station with Abed, skimming over the data input from the sensor array that had been restored using what little the secondary backup battery array had left in the, trying to pinpoint their exact position in the Milky Way Galaxy. The whole crew had been up for hours trying to figure out their next step. When preparing for this mission, the United Nation Space Agency, or UNSA, had never even dreamed that this could be a situation the crew of the Greendale would be in.

Suddenly, the ship rocked side to side. Troy put his hands on the floor of the command center, pushing himself up into a single knee position in front of Abed “Abed, Report” Troy commanded, his voice tinged with a slight warble of uncertainty.

“Unsure, sensors are reporting back now” Abed replied, his dark brown eyes glued to the screen of green scrolling text in front of him. He spoke slowly, information being fed to him “It seems we are in a beam of vibrating light” he started “Internal Dampeners are compensating adequately for the vibration of the light” Another bout of movement rocked the ship as Abed continued “and now it seems like we are moving?” his voice finished in more of a question than a statement

Craig, from a speaker in the ceiling, confirmed “Yes Abed, your correct, we are currently moving in an aft direction”

Troy turned to the comms panel beside him “Annie, report, did you get the reactors back online?”

A few seconds past as the reply finally came “No Commander, still working on getting reactor two online, it will still be another few hours until I can get the exotic particles to react with the catalyst in the reaction chamber”

“Okay, keep me posted” he replied, his hands moving away from the console to cut the link to the aft of the ship

“Abed, anything on sensors?”

Abed continued to look at his console, his face illuminated by the screens of his station in the dull emergency lighting. Finally, he turned back to Troy, a look of {insert expression} on his face “Sir, it’s another ship” his voice faded into silence, his words echoing around the command center as they all grasped the gravity of his statement.

“Come again Abed?” Troy asked, his voice dripping with both scepticism and fear of the unknown.

Abed had already turned back, his fingers twisting dials, pulling levers, and scrolling through screens of information until an image appeared on his monitor from outside the ship. He pressed a combination of buttons, turning his screen dark for a split second as the holographic display above the Navigation table in the center of the room replicated what he was seeing on his screen. “Another ship is out there”

Troy stopped his movements over to the Science console, turning around to face the holographic display enveloping the room, he turned to Abed, face still buried in the console “How far between us and them?” He asked

Abed pressed a few buttons, his screen transforming into a radar style screen, the Greendale on the left side of the screen, and the mystery ship on the right “Current, sensors show that we are roughly Forty-Five thousand kilometres from the other ship.” He stopped abruptly, sliding a lever from right to left and twisting a small silver dial “Correction, Forty-Three Thousand Kilometers, no, sorry, Forty-One Thousand Kilometers.” He turned to look at Troy “Sir, they look to be bringing us in close to them.”

Troy turned to Shirley “Shirley, pass out weapons to the crew, safeties on, but let’s be on our guard”

“Yes Sir” Shirley answered, her fingers lightly touching the cross around her neck as she entered in her security clearance to open up the small assortment of armaments they had on the ship.

“Abed” Troy turned back to the science officer “Distance between us and the other ship?”

“Twenty-Three Thousand Kilometers and holding” Abed said, his eyes darting between console and commander on deck.

“Holding?” Troy asked, his voice sounding surprised “What do you mean holding?”

“We have stopped all motion” Abed replied, his eyes darting between read-outs “And seem to be holding that distance”

Troy squinted at the holographic display “Shirley” he turned to the Navigation Officer as she was handing a small pistol to Abed, who was reluctantly strapping it to his waist “Can you magnify that ship in the hologram?”

“Sure” she said as she stepped down next to the table, her hands flying over the screen to eventually make a pinching shape, her fingers together to start, and then spreading wide to make the other ship zoom into focus.

Troy moved around the display “Is that ship yellow?” he asked to no one in particular, turning to Shirley “And do those look like tow truck stripes on the side of that ship? Did we just travel six thousand odd light years, to be picked up by a tow truck?”

“Surely not” Shirley replied, her eyes glued to the mysterious yellow ship that was connected to them by a beam of light.

Suddenly, a slight feeling of inertia was felt on the deck of this ship

“We’re moving” Shirley announced

“Distance is still Twenty-Three Thousand Kilometers and holding from the other ship” Abed announced “We are picking up speed”

Craigbot moved into the command center, his feet carrying him down the few steps to the navigation table, his eyes becoming hazy behind his thick-rimmed glasses as he interfaced directly with the sensor array. “Hmmm” he mused “Where have I seen these readings before” he thought before his memory banks kicked in “Oh God, hold on to something”

Troy, alarm showing in his eyes “What? What’s going on?”

Suddenly, a thin blue beam shot out from the front of the Bright Yellow Ship, finishing in front of it, a bright swirling multicoloured vortex of plasma appearing in front of the yellow tow ship.

“Its another wormhole, and we are going in!” Craigbot squealed, his hands gripping the handrail as the others dived other handholds in the command center.

Troy smashed his hands down on the nearest comms panel, opening a ship-wide broadcast “All hands, secure stations, I repeat, all hands, secure stations, we are going into another wormhole” he screamed, smashing his hand back into the panel to cut the channel.

The yellow ship, still picking up speed approached the event horizon, its nose lining up slightly with the center as it plunged into the swirling mass of plasma.

With no control, no engines or no hope of stopping itself, the Greendale was pulled in behind the tow ship, plunging into the flickering multicolored vortex behind the yellow ship. The vortex flared brightly in the deep darkness of interstellar space before flickering out of existence.


End file.
